


Assessment

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [88]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Polyamory, Sleepovers, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 05:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4126533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Downstairs, a fairy-vampire slumber party is held; upstairs, a threesome is contemplated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Assessment

**Author's Note:**

> Part one, "Slow Love."

“So you’re basically a vampire Elle Woods,” Braelyn says, stretching out over Willa’s lap.

Amber snorts.  “Except I didn’t go to Harvard, I went to internet college,” she cracks.  “And I didn’t go to get my boyfriend back, I went because my evil bitch sister was blackmailing me and my boyfriend not to leave our goddamn house.”  She’s chipper about it, considering the subject, but there’s a very definite and reasonable bitterness in her voice.  “And I figured if she was going to pay me to stay home I might as well do something.”

“Why’d you let her do that?” Charlaine asks, wrinkling her nose and reaching for one of the leftover pastries, the cutesy pink cupcakes that had been ordered at her request (all of the fairies had had a say in the food, since none of the vampires gave a shit).

“You never met Sarah,” Pam mutters, sniffing disgustedly.  “Trust me when I say the rumors were true and none of us have ever exaggerated about her.  She was a horrible woman, sanctimonious and closed-minded and pushy as fuck.  You couldn’t have paid me to bite her, I’d have just snapped her neck.”

She’s being surprisingly personable and chatty right now, and she hasn’t even made a crack about the fact that the evening has devolved into a fairy-vampire slumber party.  Those with children were the first to go home, respecting adolescent bedtimes and all that; then the werewolves, who didn’t want to stick around longer than they had to; then Sookie, wanting to check on Jason; then the other humans, Lafayette and Isi prompting their group to dance their way out and Amarie and Mallory on either of Noël’s arms; then the delegation of Missourian vampires, then Evelyn and the other Georgian vampires, then Kaete and her group from Tokyo.  By three-thirty, the only guests were the Bellefleur girls (who’d arranged to sleep over in advance) and Amber (who’d spent the past hour being interrogated by none other than those same fairy girls).  While the three highest-ranking of their party disappeared, then, the other women had changed into pajamas and migrated into the living room to play hair and nails.  Pam is currently braiding Amber’s hair, and it’s been more than a little unnerving watching her acclimatize to the younger vampire’s company so quickly.

“Considering she co-ran a fuckin’ hate cult, I didn’t put much past her,” Amber shrugs.  “It was basically stay home and fuck around survivin’ on TruBlood or go outside to actually do shit and get killed for it.”

“Shit,” Danika says.  “Tara, can you pass the pink nail polish?  The sparkly one?”

Tara nods and obliges, then considers Amber’s situation thoughtfully.  “Sometimes it’s hard to lash out against who you’ve been closest to in the past,” she finally says, mostly in explanation to Danika and the other baby fairies.  “Even if they hurt you over and over.”

Danika frowns.  “Well, I’m glad Sarah’s dead, then,” she says to Amber.  “An’ Tara, I hope whoever hurt you like that’s dead too, but if they’re not I hope you’ve at least gotten to punch them in the face.”

“Not quite,” Tara chuckles, finding her fairy’s protectiveness endearing.  “But the shittiest ones are outta my life now.  It’s okay.  I’m okay.”  She smiles softly at Pam to punctuate this.

“Well, good,” Danika says shyly.

“So’re you moving in here, then?” Adilyn asks Amber.

“Nah,” Amber says with a casual shrug.  “I’m not some integral piece of the new Authority puzzle.  I’m just here to offer legal counsel when they need it.”  She grins at Willa.  “And she said there’s a free house in it for me.”

“Well, Aunt Nora’s got those houses just layin’ around that belonged to the old Authority,” Willa shrugs.  “She said she’s glad to share if you want one of ‘em.”

“Honestly,” Amber says for the fairies’ benefit, “when Wills told me that the first time, it was what pushed me over the edge into wanting to work with these guys.  Not just ‘cause free stuff is awesome -”

“Free stuff is totally awesome, though,” Charlaine giggles.

“But it was the fact that here’s someone who doesn’t know me, has every reason to hate me or at least expect that I’m gonna fuck them over, but she’s still offering to give me a job and a brand new place to live,” Amber continues.  “I know there’s vampires that’re gonna judge you right and left -”

“And with damn good reasons,” Pam interjects smugly.

“But I dunno, I’ve always felt kinda like vampires’re less gonna judge you on shit you can’t control, like who your family was or what opportunities you’ve never had,” Amber muses.

“It’s a second chance,” Tara provides.

“Yeah,” Amber agrees.  “And with older vampires, like Nora, I feel like sometimes there’s this culture of trying to help out younger ones, or ones who’ve been kinda fucked over some way or another.  And that’s kinda neat, and I wanna be a part of it.”

“Where is Nora, anyway?” Danika - who’d been busy changing into her jammies when everyone had been dispersing - asks.

“Our new chancellors took their queen to bed, obviously,” Pam drawls.  “A celebratory threeway.”

“And that’s all we’re gonna say about that!” Willa yelps.

 

* * *

 

“Jessica, are you all right in there?” Nora calls.  “You’ve been in the bath for nearly an hour.”

“Leave her be, sister,” Eric chides.  “She’ll join us when she’s ready.”

Nora huffs, zipping her gown into a dress bag that’s been hanging on the closet door.  “I just - if something is wrong, I’d like to know so I can help fix it,” she says in a low voice.

“She brings out a charming protectiveness in you,” he muses.

“Well, I think that’s right, all things considered,” she retorts, then raising her voice again to add, “If you’d like us to leave you alone, please let us know.”

“Let  you  know,” he corrects.  “I’m doing no such thing.”

“I’ll be out in a minute,” Jessica shouts, sounding strained.  “I’m just gettin’ a few things ready.”

Nora looks at Eric, perplexed, and he shrugs.  This plan isn’t one of his, though he’s suddenly got a feeling he might want it to have been.

“We’ll be here,” Nora declares.

It gets harder to wait, though, and by the time Jessica emerges from the ensuite, she finds Eric sitting with his legs wrapped around Nora’s waist, rubbing her shoulders to soothe her apparent anxiousness.  Or that’s what they’re doing before they see Jessica, posing in the doorway like a pinup calendar.

“I wanted tonight to be special,” she says.


End file.
